Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-09

financiers, and the lives OF those who
have made stir in the world. In the
library there is a splendid collection of
books of this character.
But by far the most interesting of the
contents Of the library is the very large
collection OF autograph letters from the
most distir guished men in America. They
date back fifty years and more age, when
Sherman was first starting out in his ca
reer. When still young man he con-
ceived the idea of keeping every letter he
received, and the result of this determin-
alton is that he has vast collection of
letters, covering every period in the Re-
public's history for the past quarter OF 9
century. They are all carefully arranged
ard classified, and by the aid of COM
| prehensive index any one OF them
can be found at q moments no.
tice. Should tie ONO sen. tar
( ever reaca the goal iof which
be is recognized aspirant, we may be
| s1fe Shese letters will be of use to him
! in paying off old scores. But though he
! is the recipient of so many letters, he
very rarely writes ore and seems to have
taken to himself, as g rule, the old
adage "never write letter and never
destroy one" If this adage had been
adopted by many another statesman
what difference there might have been
in American history. 1t is question
what will become of these letters when
Sher1 an dies. No doubt many of them
are OF sensational interest, and should
they be published, light may be thrown
on some facts in our public history that
that would be startling.
By far the most Interesting of the many
letters would be those which have been
exchanged between the senator and his
! brother, the General. The two brothers
| have always been the best of friends, and
not the smallest cloud of discOrd has ever
come between them. And, by the way, it
| is not generally known that the statesman
narrowly escaped being the soldier of the
| family, and vice verse. The father died
Vben John was about six years old, and
| the general very little older. The family
We're In poor circumstances, and Thomas
Ewing offered to adopt one of the boys,
"the smartest and the best"
as he expressed it. A family cOun-
Gil was held, and it was decided that
'Cumpy" as the future soldier was
called, should be the one. So the paths
of the two boys diverged. John studied
law and went into politics; his brother
went to West Point and became the gem
eral of the army. But to return to the
letters. The two brothers have cor
responded all their lives, and the senator
has every letter that the general ever
wrote him. There are thousands of
them, pasted in four huge volumes, and
they contain history of the SOL
der brothers. life. In these days
when everything relating to the war
is in such great demsnd, what a
feast it would be to read these letters.
They are addressed from every place I'M
der the sun. From school, from West
Point, from the plains when he was a
simple lieutenant then during the civil
war, before great movements, after
| bloody battles, from headquarters, on g
drum head, and from every conceivable
place and under every conceivable cir
cumstance, and they were written, not
for the public, but for his second self and
everything was told and nothing kept
back No doubt one Of these days they
will all be published, and certainly they
will form a most interesting contribution
to the history of the war.
The domestic life and personal habits
of the distinguished senator are remark
able for their regularity and methed.
Nothing can be simpler than his home
life. AS we have said he is another man
in privat4 life from what he is in his pub
lie canacity He arises about in tie
morning and Immediately has his break-
fast. He then reads the morning
pap-rs and attends to his personal
correspondence. By this time it is